According to latest research a first look or observation for just about 20 seconds maybe all that is needed to know if a person is nurturing and socially sensitive. These people may be genetically wired to be so say researchers.
The genetic variation affects the receptor for oxytocin, often referred to as the "love hormone" or "cuddle chemical" because it plays a role in social bonding, trust, empathy and generosity. Levels of oxytocin increase during orgasm and childbirth, and it helps the formation of bonds between friends, lovers, and parents and children.
This new study shows that people with two G variants of the gene are more empathetic and "prosocial," showing more compassion, cooperation and positive emotion. In contrast, those with the at least one A version of the gene tend to be less empathetic, may have worse mental health and are more likely to be autistic. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For the study the team videotaped 23 romantic couples while one person listened to his or her significant other describe a time of personal suffering. Then, 116 strangers were asked to watch silent 20-second clips of the videos and rate the listeners on how supportive and trustworthy they seemed.
Those who were rated as most empathetic based on their body language and behavior — things like keeping eye contact, smiling and nodding while their partner spoke, and having open body posture — were also more likely to have the GG genotype, researchers found. Of the 10 people rated the most trustworthy, six had the GG variant; of the 10 rated lowest on trust, nine had two copies of the A gene variation.
“Our findings suggest even slight genetic variation may have tangible impact on people's behavior, and that these behavioral differences are quickly noticed by others,” said lead author Aleksandr Kogan, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto.
Sarina Rodrigues Saturn, assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University and an author of the study said, “We were floored by how strongly significant the results were by genotype for such a small number of people evaluated.” Men who carried the GG genotype were also more easily identified as being sensitive, compared with the women.
However Rodrigues Saturn warns against seeing the GG genotype as the determining factor in a person's ability to empathize or connect. “I would definitely caution everyone not to think of this as an 'empathy gene.' There are many environmental, cultural and genetic influences that interplay with each other to make up the entire person,” she said. “Neurochemical genetic variations can influence emotional states and traits but they definitely don't determine who becomes what...Our biological makeup only accounts for less than half of our traits, and this one genetic variation interacts with many other genes, experiences, societal structure, etc.”
Case in point, while Americans with the GG genotype are more likely to seek emotional support from friends, people with the same genotype in Korea, where such help-seeking is considered burdensome, are less likely to do so.
Additionally the effects of oxytocin are complex. Although the hormone is widely recognized for boosting feelings of trust and caring, some studies suggest that how people were raised influences whether the hormone actually encourages social connection. For example, when men whose mothers were not particularly nurturing are given doses of oxytocin, they tend to recall more bad memories of mom, compared with men who felt more cared for as children; they find themselves thinking more fond thoughts of mom under the hormone's influence.
One of the main drawbacks of the study was its small sample size. Lead author Aleksandr Kogan, responded that he would normally agree with such a critique, except for two facts. The first is that the number of observers and video clips observed actually makes for a larger sample size, providing greater statistical power. Additionally he believes there is more validity to the finding because “fortunately, there have been about a dozen studies conducted in the past 10 years looking at [this gene] and self-reported empathy, and the findings have been all consistent — and used hundreds of participants.”
He however concluded, “I would strongly agree that outside replication is still very necessary and that this is really just a preliminary finding.”
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